When it comes to end-of-year charitable giving, the number one questions a donor usually ask is: Where can my donation make the greatest impact in the lives of others? To answer this, ROIministry.org challenged exhaustive research, strategic givers and the largest Christian foundations in the world. After a reviewing nearly 1,000 causes, the donor advocacy group has produced a list of the 10 most impactful Christian charities[1] with outcomes such as:

Typically, a non-profit’s 990 forms are reviewed by donors to ascertain program verse overhead expense, however the biblical approach also requires evaluating “good lasting fruit” from gifts. Many of the Christian charities in the survey also responded with physical needs met per dollar, amount per meal, clean water, etc. Others emphasized the spiritual part of a person, as “this had to be included, because people are the only thing that last forever.” This meant many trips to ministries and to the “ends of the earth” to see “fruit” and checks and balances used to track this.

ROIministry.org teams also tested the findings against what Jesus taught about giving. He “came to preach the good news to the poor” and his litmus test for followers is what we do for the “least of these.” In finding these and defining how to be a good “neighbor,” Jesus provided the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The beaten, left for dead, lacking clothes person that the religious leaders avoided in this Parable, is where ministries with the greatest fruit per dollar achieved overall. The most impactful Christian charities serve the “least of these” billion people at the “ends of the earth” who are currently only receiving 1/3 of one percent of all Christian giving today.